Finance Minister Flaherty to deliver federal budget on March 21

Jim Flaherty: Federal budget date set for March 21

OTTAWA — Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will deliver a federal budget on March 21, the same day the parliamentary budget officer, Kevin Page, is due in court in an attempt to clarify his mandate and get federal departments to hand over more financial information.

Flaherty announced the budget date Thursday in Ottawa after meeting with a group of students from a national charitable organization, who provided their own input on what they want in the spending plan. The Harper government is expected to further tighten purse strings and avoid significant new spending in the budget.

With the latest economic numbers showing Canada facing a tough climb to reach any meaningful growth this year, after slipping to recession-level output in the last half of 2012, Ottawa knows it has its hands full to balance the budget.

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The minister has indicated the budget will project modest growth in the short term, close tax loopholes and look to secure better results for the government’s billions of dollars in job-training funding.

Many of the private sector economists Flaherty regularly consults in setting the government’s economic forecasts are predicting sluggish economic growth in 2013 of between 1.5% and 1.8%.

The outlook, however, is better for 2014, with some of the economists predicting anywhere from 2.3% to 2.9% growth.

“The economists . . . were a little more pessimistic for this year and a little bit more for next year, but it’s an interim concern. It’s not a long-term concern in terms of real GDP growth,” Flaherty told reporters Thursday.

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The government remains on target to balance the budget in 2015, he added.
The 2013-14 fiscal plan is expected to forecast billions of dollars of additional red ink and could see more cuts to operating spending as the government looks to eliminate a deficit estimated at $26-billion.

The minister warned last week that federal revenues will take a “significant” hit because of the slower-than-expected nominal GDP growth.

The Conservative government is believed to be considering a revamped federal skills-training program that could be financed by clawing back some of the more than $2-billion it sends to the provinces for job training for unemployed Canadians.

The federal and provincial governments “have got to do a better job” connecting Canadians to jobs available in their areas of training, Flaherty said last week.

It’s also expected the government will announce in the budget it’s renewing a federal infrastructure program that is entering its final year.

The budget will be delivered the same day a long-running feud between the PBO and federal government goes to court, and just a few days before Page’s appointment as budget officer expires.

The PBO has asked the Federal Court to clarify its mandate and whether it has the jurisdiction to access details — as requested by NDP Leader Tom Mulcair — of the $5.2-billion in budget reductions over the next few years, including the impacts on jobs and services to Canadians.

Page believes it’s within the PBO’s mandate to review the impacts of cuts contained in last year’s budget, while the Conservative government argues the PBO’s job is to review federal expenditures — not dollars it has decided not to spend.

The speakers of the House of Commons and Senate have also waded into the battle and will go to court to protect what they argue are the constitutional rights of the two chambers. Arguments for the case will be heard in Ottawa on March 21 and 22.

Lawyers for the two speakers and the Attorney General of Canada are expected to argue in court that it’s up to Parliament — not the federal court — to determine the mandate of the parliamentary budget officer.

Parliamentary Librarian Sonia L’Heureux — to whom Page reports — will take over as interim budget officer after Page’s appointment expires on March 25, until a replacement is found. Candidates must apply by April 2.